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00:01:11.080Hey, it's Drew Franklin from NFL Cover Zero.
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00:01:43.240Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you as well.
00:01:47.320It is nice to have you with us wherever you are around the country.
00:01:49.860And Senator, we've got one story we're going to cover today, and it's all El Saeed and his connections to shady characters and organizations, including the Muslim Brotherhood.
00:02:00.240But he says he has no connections at all.
00:02:03.080Well, Ben, I think today's podcast is an important podcast.
00:02:06.720I have said for a long time the two most dangerous candidates running in the country today are Abdul El Saeed in Michigan and James Tallarico in Texas.
00:02:16.440Now, we've covered James Tallarico quite a bit.
00:02:18.760He's an extreme candidate. We'll continue covering him up till and hopefully no longer after Election Day.
00:02:25.200But today we're going to do a deep dive into Abdul El-Sayed, and in particular what I think is a real and acute national security risk.0.62
00:02:36.700Abdul El-Sayed could win. The polls coming out of Michigan show the race roughly tied.
00:02:42.500There have been polls that show him ahead. There are polls that show him slightly behind.
00:02:46.320If he wins, I believe that poses an unprecedented national security risk.
00:02:55.120Abdul Al-Sayed, Chuck Schumer could place him on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
00:03:01.820Understand the way the United States Senate operates.
00:03:04.360There is no separate security clearance for a senator.
00:03:07.980The fact of getting elected to the United States Senate gives you clearance.
00:03:12.000and Abdul Saeed I believe the overwhelming evidence indicates has been a lifelong supporter0.98
00:03:20.580of the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization responsible for murdering countless Americans0.94
00:03:28.180and I believe if Abdul Saeed is elected and if he is appointed to committees like the Senate0.97
00:03:34.780Intelligence Committee or the Senate Armed Services Committee that have access to classified
00:03:39.340information, that poses an acute risk that U.S. servicemen and women will be killed
00:03:46.720and that intelligence assets, U.S. intelligence assets abroad, will have their lives endangered.
00:03:55.360We're going to lay out the evidence. This is not a podcast where we're going to use a whole
00:04:00.120lot of adjectives. We're going to use a whole lot of hyperbole. We're simply going to walk through
00:04:05.000the evidence. Because this is important, I think, for the people of Michigan, that they do not want
00:04:10.020a radical Marxist Islamist as their senator. But it is important to all 50 states that we not have
00:04:19.200a member of the United States Senate who, by virtue of that election, has access to classified
00:04:24.260materials for whom there is an unacceptable risk that senator will pass on classified materials
00:04:32.160to terrorists who want to murder us we're going to lay out the facts let you decide yeah it's
00:04:39.100really interesting i also want to take a moment and talk to you about americans united for life
00:04:43.600roe v wade was overturned but abortion in america did not disappear according to guttmacher
00:04:49.620institute approximately 1.6 million abortions occurred in america in 2023 that was nearly 14
00:04:57.240percent more than in 2020, and an estimated 65 percent were chemical abortions, which is commonly
00:05:04.480known today as abortion pills. Now, think about how much the landscape has changed. Roe fell,
00:05:10.940but abortion did not end. As laws and access shifted from state to state, abortion increasingly
00:05:17.620moved online, with abortion pills marketed as health care and made available through websites,
00:05:23.580including unregulated sites that allow women to order pills without physician oversight.
00:05:31.220Americans United for Life knows the fight for human life didn't end when Roe was overturned
00:05:36.940and continues its work through law, policy, and education and advocacy.
00:05:42.520If you want to support that work, you can make a gift to Americans United for Life today.
00:05:47.860They need our help at aul.org slash verdict.0.79
00:06:05.720So I want to go back to one of the very interesting and unique things about the Senate that has really been mentioned by some, but very much overlooked in the reporting.
00:06:16.040And that is, if you become a United States senator, there is not a mechanism, from what I understand, and I'm asking you, you're in the Senate, to say to someone, hey, you can't get classified information.
00:06:29.920If you're a senator, you automatically get access to it, especially if you're on one of these committees as you described it.
00:06:35.260And if there is someone in the U.S. Senate that, again, heaven forbid, is an actual threat to our national security the way that you were describing it with El Saeed and his connections, how in the world did we get to a point where this could become a real reality?
00:06:49.640Well, it's the reality that senators, when they are elected, they don't go through security clearance.
00:06:56.700The fact that the voters of their state sent them to the Senate, that they were in a constitutional office, gives them security clearance under the law.
00:07:04.120And each party assigns committees differently. The Democrat Party gives that authority to Chuck Schumer. The most sensitive committee in terms of intelligence information is the Senate committee, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. That is appointed by the leaders.
00:07:21.500So Chuck Schumer, if he wanted, could put El Saeed on the Intelligence Committee.
00:07:25.620And by the way, I think there would be real pressure from the far left to do so.
00:07:29.460And on the Intelligence Committee, he would have access to the most sensitive intelligence we have.
00:07:36.980Intelligence that goes to sources and methods, that goes to potentially uncovering undercover assets,
00:07:45.900assets that we may have covertly with the Muslim Brotherhood, with other terrorist organizations.
00:07:52.120You know, the CIA sends human operatives in to go undercover, to pretend that, to infiltrate
00:07:58.320terrorist organizations and to try to give us information to prevent terrorist attacks before
00:08:03.300they occur. That information is not widely available, but the Senate Intelligence Committee,
00:08:08.800by the way, the Senate Intelligence Committee has jurisdiction over the CIA, the NSA, the Central
00:08:14.040Security Service, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Bureau of Intelligence and Research,
00:08:18.900and the intelligence branches of all of the divisions of the U.S. military.
00:08:24.920The Intelligence Committee was established in 1976 after the Church Committee found evidence
00:08:31.140of spying on American citizens and illegal wiretapping. And the official duties of the
00:08:36.200Senate Intelligence Committee are to, quote, oversee and make continuing studies of the
00:08:41.520intelligence activities and programs of the United States government and to, quote, submit to the
00:08:46.220Senate appropriate proposals for legislation and report to the Senate concerning such
00:08:51.720intelligence activities. Another purpose of the Senate Intelligence Committee is to, quote, provide
00:08:57.020vigilant legislative oversight over the intelligence activities of the United States to
00:09:02.840assure that such activities are in conformity with the Constitution and laws of the United States.
00:09:09.480The committee meets every Tuesday that the Senate is in session.
00:09:14.360They are generally closed meetings that are not public.
00:09:19.920And senators, by virtue of being constitutional officers,
00:09:24.260quote, by tradition and practice, United States officials who hold positions
00:09:28.420prescribed by the Constitution of the United States are deemed to meet
00:09:32.200the standards of trustworthiness for eligibility for access to classified information.
00:09:38.760All classifieds, all senators have access to classified intelligence assessment, regardless of the committee you're on.
00:09:45.720However, quote, members are not inherently authorized to receive all classified information,
00:09:52.760but agencies provide access as is necessary for Congress to perform its legislative function.
00:09:58.420For example, to members of a committee or subcommittee that oversees classified executive branch programs.
00:10:04.360So I have been in my 14 years in the Senate, I've been on the Senate Armed Services Committee and I've also been on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Both of those committees regularly receive classified materials. I'm also on the Senate Judiciary Committee and I'm chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. Both of those committees receive classified information as well.
00:10:22.500but the classified information you receive is within the jurisdiction of that committee
00:10:26.780by far the most sensitive is the intelligence committee because that is is engaging in oversight
00:10:32.880of covert activities and it is the leaders it is chuck schumer who could place abdul al-sayed
00:10:39.400on the intelligence committee or the armed services committee i was gonna i was gonna ask
00:10:43.620you is there's gonna be people that say well hold on a second you just don't let him get on the
00:10:47.080committee this is nothing you have to worry about so like why are you guys making a big deal out of
00:10:52.040But that's how the media is going to talk about this.
00:17:42.180Hamas, by the way, is the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine.
00:17:44.600And he later made the same case to President Obama and the Guardian.
00:17:49.820Likewise, on November 25, 2012, days after President Mohamed Morsi declared himself sweeping powers,
00:18:00.340Dr. Abdul Rahman El Saeed, of New York at the time,
00:18:04.880was the 33rd of 46 signers of an Arabic language letter on Al-Aram Gate,
00:18:12.860An Egyptian news portal stating, quote, we call on him to purge the media and the police as quickly as possible.
00:18:25.160The letter also, quote, strongly rejected those voices that are courting America and Europe to take a position against the Egyptian regime.
00:18:38.360Co-signers of this letter included Khaled LaMada, a former chairman of Islamic Relief's U.S. branch, who is praised Hamas, and Akram Elzend and Sameh Elhenawi, whom Egypt's El-Watan listed as U.S.-based brotherhood cells.
00:19:07.560In the following months, at least six Egyptian reporters were charged with, quote, insulting Islam or, quote, insulting the president.
00:19:20.260So Abdul Al-Sayed, and by the way, where's Kristen Welker saying, well, why did you write in support of Mohammed Morsi, in support of the Muslim Brotherhood taking over Egypt?
00:19:28.040Why did you say they should purge the police and the press?
00:20:19.020And Jukaku has served at least since 2007 on the 20-member founding committee of ISNA, the Islamic Society of North America, which the Holy Land Foundation prosecutors named as an unindicted co-conspirator.
00:20:45.500and one of eight entities that are, quote,
00:20:50.220are and or were members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.
00:20:55.660By the way, committee members, like Jukaku,
00:20:59.540must give ISNA at least $5,000 per year.
00:21:05.560Lorenzo Vidino, who's the director of the Program on Extremism
00:21:08.700at George Washington University, called the committee members,
00:21:11.400one of whom is Abdul El-Sayed's father-in-law and the largest owner of a super PAC,
00:21:17.560quote, the elders of the organization.
00:21:22.320Jukaku was also president of CARE Michigan from 2005 to 2010.
00:21:31.980He remains on its board today, and he was photographed in 2010 with CARE's Niwad Ahmad,
00:21:38.440the infamous care leader and the member of the 1993 Palestine Committee who declared he was
00:21:44.820happy to see Hamas break the siege on October 7th. Now what has Joukaku done? He has given
00:21:55.900$300,000 to Fighting for Michigan PAC, the largest outside group backing El-Sayed.
00:22:03.080He gave another $100,000 on July 20th to the Unity and Justice Fund, a PAC launched by CARE Action in 2024 as part of its efforts to, quote, elevate the political influence of the Muslim community following October 7th.
00:22:19.880CARE denies creating or funding the super PAC, although Ahwed said in 2024 that, quote, CARE has also created a super PAC called Unity and Justice Fund.
00:22:30.540In the July 2026 debate, not very long ago, Representative Haley Stevens, mind you, a Democrat, charged that El Saeed's, quote, father-in-law is running his super PAC.
00:22:48.260Now, where the heck is Kristen Welker if she can't even quote from the Democrat who El Saeed narrowly beat in the primary and said, look, your father-in-law is running your super PAC?
00:22:58.620El Saeed, to this day, maintains close financial ties with CARE.
00:23:04.740CARE is another unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case,
00:23:09.940which, by the way, the Holy Land Foundation case resulted in convictions
00:23:13.540of funneling millions of dollars to Hamas and other terrorist organizations.
00:23:18.600The Unity and Justice Fund, launched by CARE Action,
00:23:21.660gave $175,000 to the pro-El Said PAC fighting for Michigan on July 21st,
00:25:10.380Arousa's CEO, Ahmed Shehata, photographed at a pro-brotherhood event under the group's Rabia symbol, gave $500 to El Saeed's Senate campaign.
00:25:23.960Arousa director, Issam Omeish, gave $4,350.
00:25:29.320dollars. Omaish is a former president of the Muslim American Society, a, quote, overt arm
00:25:37.280of the Brotherhood, per the House Oversight Committee. And Omaish has urged Muslims to0.63
00:25:44.100embrace, quote, the jihad way. This year, not a long time ago this year, El Saeed spoke at0.84
00:25:54.740ISNA's National Convention, hosted by one of the main
00:25:58.800Brotherhood groups to emerge from the Holy Land Foundation trial.
00:26:02.520He spoke at this convention just six days before
00:26:06.800the 25th anniversary of September 11th. His speech
00:26:11.020followed a montage in which Imam Siraj0.52
00:28:33.180Now if you live in the critical Senate battleground states of Maine or Ohio
00:28:37.340Early voting is already underway starting this week
00:28:41.300Now, Democrats, they are energized, and the stakes have never been higher.
00:28:45.540We can't afford to have people like AOC and our communist cronies running the show.
00:28:50.660That's why I need you to make a plan to vote early right now.
00:28:54.540Go to GOPVotes.org to find your polling location, vote early, and stop the socialist takeover of America.
00:29:03.040Paid for by SLF PAC, not authorized by any candidate or candidates committee.
00:29:08.140All right. So let's get back into this story. And again, there's the scary part is there's even more to this.
00:29:14.900Yeah. So in 2018, there was a documentary that showed El Saeed asking filmmakers to keep his living room bookshelf out of the frame to, quote, keep the shot secular.
00:29:29.680So now, what do you think that bookshelf held that he was trying to keep out of the documentary because he didn't want people to see that?
00:29:37.000By the way, this is not just a book he had somewhere that he proudly displays in his living room.
00:29:42.600Well, one included works by Abu Amina Bilal Phillips, who is a 1993 World Trade Center bombing unindicted co-conspirator.
00:29:53.260It also included books by Brotherhood member Muhammad al-Ghazali, a Jamaat al-Islami member, and also by Shakul Islam ibn Taymiyyah, whose writings both Al-Qaeda and ISIS cite.
00:30:16.460His campaign later said, this was not Abdul's bookshelf.
00:30:20.460It was apparently another bookshelf someone smuggled into his living room against his wishes.
00:30:24.280And they said, a background book is, quote, not an endorsement.
00:30:29.040This is, again, apparently someone mysteriously is putting books in his living room.
00:30:34.180Now, I want to stop and go back to a foundational question.
00:30:38.860The evidence is overwhelming that Abdul al-Sayed is a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, that his family, as his sister says, have long been Muslim Brotherhood supporters.
00:30:50.120But let's stop for a second and say, what is the Muslim Brotherhood?
00:30:57.320So let's do a little bit of background as to what the Muslim Brotherhood is.
00:31:01.160The Muslim Brotherhood, whose technical name is Al-Ikwan Al-Muslimon, is a transnational Sunni Islamist movement founded in Egypt in 1928 by schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna, whose stated aim was government by Sharia and ultimately a global Islamic order.
00:31:28.640The Muslim Brotherhood's motto declares, quote,
00:32:33.320The Brotherhood operates through national branches that adopt their tactics to local conditions.
00:32:39.900Hamas is, by its own 1988 charter, the Brotherhood's Palestinian branch.
00:32:46.080The Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood fought alongside Hezbollah.
00:32:51.180Qatar serves as the movement's chief state patron.
00:32:56.920In Egypt, the Brotherhood briefly held power under President Mohamed Morsi from 2012 to 2013
00:33:04.720before he was removed and the group was banned as a terrorist organization.
00:33:09.320in the united states the brotherhood built a network of public facing 501c3 and 501c4
00:33:20.860organizations in the muslim brotherhood's 1991 explanatory memorandum which was seized by the
00:33:28.380fbi and entered into evidence in the holy land foundation trial it describes its u.s mission
00:33:34.560the U.S. mission of the Muslim Brotherhood, as, quote, a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.
00:33:46.000And it lists the Islamic Society of North America, which Abdul Al-Sayed's father-in-law was one of the founding members of,0.95
00:33:56.100the Muslim Students Association, and the North American Islamic Trust as among, quote, our organizations.0.88
00:34:03.720This is the Muslim Brotherhood saying these are our organizations.0.81
00:34:08.740After Hamas' founding, and in an effort to derail the Oslo Accords,0.85
00:34:13.900the U.S. Brotherhood created a, quote, Palestine Committee in 1993.
00:34:18.580This group of Brotherhood officials raised money for Hamas
00:34:21.960under the banner of an American C-3 known as the Holy Land Foundation.
00:34:27.140The Holy Land Foundation's leaders were convicted in 2008 on all 108 counts
00:34:33.460of funneling roughly $12 million to Hamas
00:34:37.740and prosecutors named CARE and ISNA and NAYET